Financial advisors – the media’s new villans have a view point too. A few friends and relatives ‘claim’ that they listen to my financial advise. One of them is my cousin who has now retired. Last week when I met him I realised that all his money was in $ denominated fixed deposits – and have been like that for the past 20+ years. He has bought 2 houses and surely the returns in those ‘investments’ are sub-optimal.

Another ‘friend’ just called up to ask -” I have invested Rs. 20 L in a Hdfc Standard life pension plan last year, should I pay the premium for the current year?”. I flipped. Did not know what to say…then he added..actually 3 of us in the office have bought it. I did a somersault again. Then I told them a story of Kumbhakarna.

On an assumption that you all know the Ramayana, let me start from the middle! Rama has reached the sea shore with a huge monkey army and Ravana is worried. He wakes up Kumbhakarna and asks him “Rama has come to the shores …should we go to war with him”. Kumbhakarna asks for the details – and Ravana says “There was this beautiful woman called Sita – I forcibly brought her here. Now her husband has come to fight – what should I do?”

Kumbhakarna says “you should have asked me, BEFORE you brought her here”. Now her husband is bound to come to fight with you.

This is largely the essence of the problem. I have a great homeopathy doctor (Dr. Sunil Balinge @ Vashi) – he has kept me off medicines for a couple of decades +! However, I have been a great patient too – I have listened to what he said and stayed that way. So finding a good advisor is only part of the solution. The other part is to hear him out. Listen to him. Understand. Implement. Monitor and keep records. That completes the process.

Not true. What is available on the net is NOISE. You need an advisor who can tell you which sites to read, and what it means! The net cannot replace the advisor, but yes it keeps the adviser on his toes. However for good investing you should invest a LOT OF time in getting the good adviser. Then trust him, but verify once or twice. AFter that completely trust him. If you keep second guessing, that is your problem!

Wonderful explanation. Things would work well if everyone learns to trust the people who they have brought to help them simplify their life, and not keep second guessing them all the time. Of course choosing the right people to work with is not an easy task!